One approaches any new holiday classic with a bit of trepidation. What magical treakely message are we to receive, what illumination of the human heart that's supposed make us better people by awakening our power to believe?
The magical twist in Book-It Repertory's Christmas production of Berkeley Breathed's illustrated children's book Red Ranger Came Calling is so unexpected, so site specific to a local landmark, so outrageously silly that your first reaction is "that's it?" Can't be. And then it sinks in that buried beneath the joke is a twisted unspoken message about the nature of wishes that's pretty damn far from your standard Christmas hogwash. It's completely from left field, unguessable, as though the play ended by saying "and that's the REAL story of how Stonehenge was built."
It didn't make me believe in Santa Claus but it sure made me believe in theater.
Most Book-It productions depend upon a perfectly cast central character, and 23 year old Jerick Hoffer's depiction of 9-year-old Red is a jaw-drop amalgamation of Tom Sawyer, Alfred E. Newman, Pee-Wee Herman, and Dennis the Menace, petulant, nasty, and completely hysterical.
But the real star of the evening is the adaptation by Myra Platt and Edd Key. As directed by Myra Platt, it's got enough good old fashioned stagecraft, show tunes, and dance routines to keep your toes tapping, just enough childish humor to keep the kids paying attention, and just enough subversion to keep cynical schmucks like me from skipping out during intermission.
Forget that warhorse Amahl and the Night Visitors. Samuel French should jump on this "guaranteed true Christmas story" crowd pleaser so it can be performed by high schools across the land.
